Wate industry invests in premier league plants

New investment in the waste transfer and handling plants needed to handle the
growing rubbish mountain and translate ambitious recycling targets into action
on the ground have been hitting the target, kicking off in North London

London Waste's planned Lough Road development

In one of the biggest football-related transfers of the season, the London
Borough of Islington is finding a new home for waste operations which are to
make way for Arsenal FC's planned new 60,000 seater stadium at Ashburton Grove.

The way is now clear for the council to grant planning permission to the development
proposals, which cover three separate sites, all within Islington's boundaries
- Highbury, Ashburton Grove and a large area to the west of Holloway Road, known
as the Lough Road site.

In addition to the new stadium, the proposals would provide over 2,000 new
and refurbished homes, a sports and community centre, community health facilities,
leisure and publicly accessible open space plus a larger waste and recycling
centre.
One of several major waste industry developments announced in recent weeks,
the new waste and recycling centre in Lough Road will be operated by London
Waste, a 50/50 partnership between Sita and North London Waste Authority.

Since the plans were first mooted Arsenal has been working closely with the
waste operator to install a state-of-the-art waste facility on a derelict site
in nearby Lough Road. Located next to a major railway line, the new centre offers
the potential to transport waste by rail, which means that the facility will
be equipped with compactors. London Waste states that "whilst complying
with all the relevant environmental standards, the new three-level facility
will also be fully covered and will promote recycling as the first option before
other disposal methods are explored."

Nationwide development
At Sevenoaks in Kent, Cory Environmental has won approval from the county council
for its plans to develop an integrated waste management facility. The 20 hectare
site, known as Greatness Quarry, is a former Gault clay quarry that had been
used to produce clay for brickmaking. Cory will progressively restore the void
with locally generated waste remaining after recycling which will be a feature
of the operation. Aggregates, soils and green waste composting will be recycled
on site, with some of the recycled material used on site for restoration.

It is anticipated that the site will take around 185,000 tonnes a year of locally
collected commercial, industrial and household waste and that landfill operation
will last 10 years. Currently, much of Kent's waste is transported out of the
county.

Liquid waste treatment
Across the Kent border East Sussex County Council recently granted planning
permission to Lloyds Environmental Waste Management Ltd to develop part of its
22-acre site near Lewes. The company expects to create up to £2 million
of investment, which will be used to provide both a state-of-the-art liquid
waste treatment plant and new business units at South Chailey.

The liquid treatment plant, stated to be one of the most advanced of its kind,
will accept sewage, food and oily waste material. Once treated, the plant will
discharge clear water into a pond on the site before passing into a local stream.

According to Hugh Neatherway, Technical Compliance Manager at Lloyds Environmental,
the technology involved meets the very highest standards of safety. The company
states: "The plant incorporates a physical barrier which will be permanently
present between the treatment and discharge areas. This will consist of a membrane
bioreactor which will prevent the passing through of any harmful bacteria and
suspended solids, thus ensuring the maximum possible protection."

Lloyds believes that the new plant will benefit the region overall, as it will
not only provide investment and jobs, but it will also equip the whole of Sussex
with its first liquid waste treatment facility. Until now, liquid waste in the
area has been transported to sites as far away as Southampton and Maidstone.

In the West Country, waste management and quarrying group, Roseland Group of
Companies, has welcomed a decision by the Government Office for the South West
to lift a Direction it imposed on Cornwall County Council, which prevented it
from issuing planning consent for Roseland's application for an integrated waste
management facility to be built at Lean Quarry, Liskeard.
The Government's decision, five months in the making, clears the way for Cornwall
CC to approve Roseland's plans, the company states.

The development involves a plant on a 36-acre site which would tackle the county's
commercial waste by increasing recycling and using residual waste to restore
the quarry to woodland and pasture. Landfill gas would also be used to generate
power for the quarry plant.

Richard Crocker, Company Secretary at Roseland, stated: "Last year we
recycled 25% of all the waste we received. This year we will recycle 33%. This
decision will help us improve this performance further. We are helping the County
Council to solve the problems of waste in Cornwall by tackling non-domestic
waste at no cost to the taxpayer."

Recycling initiatives
Canadian recycling experts visited a recently opened MRF in Exeter, which represents
a £1.7million investment , as part of a Valpak sponsored research programme
looking at ways of increasing recycling from UK households.

The research is being carried out by David Davies Associates. Valpak is carrying
out a series of exploratory meetings with local authorities, including Exeter
City Council which runs the Marsh Barton recycling plant.. The MRF has the capacity
to process 36,000 tonnes a year of all recyclables except glass.

Maintaining the momentum on the recycling front, WRAP (the Waste Resources
Action Programme) has set out an action plan aimed at doubling plastic bottle
recycling levels in the UK. The driving force will be a major capital grant
competition to create automated sorting capacity to generate an additional reprocessing
capacity for 20,000 tonnes of plastic bottles a year. It is intended that the
new facilities will come on stream in 2003, with specified intermediate tonnages
until full capacity is reached by 2005.